Crypto giant Binance freezes $2.5bn of assets over suspected hack

Cryptocurrency giant Binance said on Thursday that it has frozen digital assets worth more than $2.5bn (£1.87bn) to prevent them from being stolen while it investigates a security issue.

The company said as part of a series of alerts online that all deposits and withdrawals are temporarily suspended while its teams conduct security checks and that the firm will "cover all losses".

"It does look like a hack on Binance," said Binance's former boss Changpeng Zhao, who remains a majority shareholder of the firm.

Zhao added that two other crypto platforms, Tether and Circle, have also frozen around $1.7bn in stolen assets.

Circle chief executive Jeremy Allaire said the firm is "closely tracking reports of a potential exploit involving Binance" and that his company has frozen more than $800m in assets linked to the incident.

Circle is the issuer and co-creator of the USDC, one of the world's largest US dollar-backed cryptocurrencies.

Tether did not immediately respond to queries from the BBC.

Binance said the amount of funds frozen may continue to increase as its teams work closely with law enforcement and other partners to trace and seize additional assets.

"We are working around the clock and will share a full post-mortem once the investigation is complete. Please rely only on official Binance channels for updates," it said, adding that users' funds are safe.

Binance is the world's largest crypto exchange by daily trading volumes.

Bitcoin dropped by around 5% following the alerts. The price of other major cryptocurrencies including Ethereum and Solana also fell sharply.